Why exactly didn't you open up our server?

[ZhenBuYaoShi]

You opened up all of the other servers? Our god **** server had been down 3 hours prior to this stupid other downtime, and it's still down when all of the other servers are already back up, what the hell is your problem. I am so sick to death of this incompetence!

[Impaqt]

Because your server is broken. Its been broken. They are trying to fix it, but obviously the problem is elusive.

Do you think Turbine is doing this on purpose? Do you think they are secretly laughing their butts off at all the angry gallandians?

[ZhenBuYaoShi]

Because your server is broken. Its been broken. They are trying to fix it, but obviously the problem is elusive.

Do you think Turbine is doing this on purpose? Do you think they are secretly laughing their butts off at all the angry gallandians?

If the **** server is broken, then they should get new equipment, and stop screwing with our lives. Oh yes, I did say lives. When you spend as much time as we do on this game, it is messing with our life.

[cave_diver]

https://youtu.be/9gSQg1i_q2g

[Munkenmo]

If the **** server is broken, then they should get new equipment, and stop screwing with our lives. Oh yes, I did say lives. When you spend as much time as we do on this game, it is messing with our life.

Go outside, take a deep breath, listen. That's the sound of the world continuing to function, there's life outside of Ghalahanda, even for you.

[Turtlsdown]

Just logged in. It's up.

[Flavilandile]

If the **** server is broken, then they should get new equipment

Oh so nicely said...
But the server is most probably a virtual machine on a blade cluster...that hosts all the other servers at the same time...
The days of a single hardware for a single use are long past. now you can have 10 or 20 servers hosted on a single physical server hardware.

Even if the server was still monolithic, getting new equipment is not that easy, depeding on the hardware, the stuff might be end of life ( after all DDO is 10 years old, it's a very long time in the computer world ) and new generation hardware might not be compatible with the whole game.
Even if there's no issue getting it on new hardware, there's lead time ( to order it, get it delivered, get it prepared ), and then there's the time it takes to shuffle it in place of the old one.

Since I'm certain that the whole game server is actually more than one potentially virtualized logical server ( namely : the G-Land game server itself, the G-Land game database, the Global game database and the AAA ( GLS ) server and the syslog server, at least ) shuffling things in place and checking that everything is right might take time.

And I'm not even starting with things like On-Demand leased servers, I assume that Turbine owns the hardware they run the game on and that they just rented Data Center space at PNAP.
( because considering the On-Demand leased servers would open a whole more complex can of worms... )

[ZhenBuYaoShi]

I've now been playing both World of Warcraft, and Dungeons and Dragons Online, for YEARS now.

Similarities: Years of long standing persistent worlds, Worlds that expand, Questing, Raiding, and just good ole killing monsters. Characters can be well customized, characters can be recustomized on the fly to fit your desire, creatures continue to get more powerful, characters continue to get more powerful, nothing is crazy making the game stupid and outlandish.

Differences: WoW servers do not crash on a consistent basis for hours at a time, when WoW had maintenance, they come back up when they say they are coming back, otherwise, about 30 mins before the alloted time, they will annouce a new time of return to service. None of this seems to be true of DnD online, why is that when WoW is a world that is at least 20 times larger with tremendously more quests, raids, and just as complex character, only the gear is simplified, so why the massive delays, and why all the crashes? WoW releases HUGE expansions with tons of content, and makes sure that all of it's code is steadfast sold everywhere in there worlds, quests, raids, why can DnD online not do this, it's been years, why is your code not polished to such a perfect degree that every dungeon that is from any previous expansion should be completely stable, and not screw up?

Please explain to me why Blizzard can handle doing this, but you cannot. You both have years and years of experience and tons and tons of customer funds to pay for it, so why do they do it right, and you do it wrong? Please answer.

[ZhenBuYaoShi]

Oh so nicely said...
But the server is most probably a virtual machine on a blade cluster...that hosts all the other servers at the same time...
The days of a single hardware for a single use are long past. now you can have 10 or 20 servers hosted on a single physical server hardware.

Even if the server was still monolithic, getting new equipment is not that easy, depeding on the hardware, the stuff might be end of life ( after all DDO is 10 years old, it's a very long time in the computer world ) and new generation hardware might not be compatible with the whole game.
Even if there's no issue getting it on new hardware, there's lead time ( to order it, get it delivered, get it prepared ), and then there's the time it takes to shuffle it in place of the old one.

Since I'm certain that the whole game server is actually more than one potentially virtualized logical server ( namely : the G-Land game server itself, the G-Land game database, the Global game database and the AAA ( GLS ) server and the syslog server, at least ) shuffling things in place and checking that everything is right might take time.

And I'm not even starting with things like On-Demand leased servers, I assume that Turbine owns the hardware they run the game on and that they just rented Data Center space at PNAP.
( because considering the On-Demand leased servers would open a whole more complex can of worms... )

A helpful response. Thank you for explaining something that I did not know had evolved into servers being amalgamated together on one server, that doesn't even have to be at their company, but could be remote, and if that's true, then I don't know what they are thinking.

However, I don't care if the next generation of servers is not fully compatible with the game as in, they put it on there and they figure out how to get the old code on the new system, that's not my problem, that's theirs. It's their job to keep the game running persistently, and right now, that job is not being done. So, if their 10 year old in house servers, which I hope they have, are going out, then good, it's time to upgrade, and they can be upgrading while we play on the old servers until they get it all on the new servers, then they do a maintenance, and switch us all to the new server. This is not that difficult. I don't care if it takes them a MONTH in the background putting all of DDO on new servers, if it needs it, it needs it, period.

[MadCookieQueen]

Please explain to me why Blizzard can handle doing this, but you cannot. You both have years and years of experience and tons and tons of customer funds to pay for it, so why do they do it right, and you do it wrong? Please answer.

In short...money.

Blizzard has mass amounts of cash...heck in Q1 2014 Blizzard raked in $1.1 Billion: http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/6/5688310/activision-blizzard-financials-first-quarter-2014


When Turbine was bought by Warner Brothers in 2010 they only had a reported annual stream of $35 - $50 million: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/04/warner-bros-acquires-turbine.html

Even if we assume a modest 10% increase each year in revenue...today they would only be making...about $80 million this year

How do you not see the difference...one entire year of Turbine earning is still less than 10% of 1 single quarter earnings for Blizzard.

That's the big mystery...Blizzard has cash galore for equipment, manpower, resources and etc.

Don't compare the two..financially they aren't even in the same league.

[TrinityTurtle]

Please explain to me why Blizzard can handle doing this, but you cannot. You both have years and years of experience and tons and tons of customer funds to pay for it, so why do they do it right, and you do it wrong? Please answer.

First off in it's heyday wow has always had MILLIONS of subscribers. Sadly, DDO has never had that many or been anywhere near as successful. They do NOT have tons and tons of customer funds to pay for things. They were supposed to develop the game for Atari, who failed utterly to live up to it's end of the contracts, hence the legal wrangling between Turbine and Atari and DDO's struggle of a start. Currently WOW has 10+ million subscribers again, no one can imagine DDO has anywhere near that. So very simply, Blizzard has a lot more resources to devote to their game. Also Blizzard enjoys a looser relationship with it's parent company Activision from what I can gather from it's press that it was more of a merger/partnership than Turbine enjoys with Warner Bros. who only bought it because Turbine had the only LOTRO license they didn't.

This sort of comparison is extremely unfair on it's merits.

[Uska]

I've now been playing both World of Warcraft, and Dungeons and Dragons Online, for YEARS now.

Similarities: Years of long standing persistent worlds, Worlds that expand, Questing, Raiding, and just good ole killing monsters. Characters can be well customized, characters can be recustomized on the fly to fit your desire, creatures continue to get more powerful, characters continue to get more powerful, nothing is crazy making the game stupid and outlandish.

Differences: WoW servers do not crash on a consistent basis for hours at a time, when WoW had maintenance, they come back up when they say they are coming back, otherwise, about 30 mins before the alloted time, they will annouce a new time of return to service. None of this seems to be true of DnD online, why is that when WoW is a world that is at least 20 times larger with tremendously more quests, raids, and just as complex character, only the gear is simplified, so why the massive delays, and why all the crashes? WoW releases HUGE expansions with tons of content, and makes sure that all of it's code is steadfast sold everywhere in there worlds, quests, raids, why can DnD online not do this, it's been years, why is your code not polished to such a perfect degree that every dungeon that is from any previous expansion should be completely stable, and not screw up?

Please explain to me why Blizzard can handle doing this, but you cannot. You both have years and years of experience and tons and tons of customer funds to pay for it, so why do they do it right, and you do it wrong? Please answer.

MONey

[LeslieWest_GuitarGod]

Seems like this question was answered properly. Still, it's worth repeating when it sounds this good...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkhX5W7JoWI

[Uska]

Seems like this question was answered properly. Still, it's worth repeating when it sounds this good...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkhX5W7JoWI

Grr won't let me rep you again but that band/album/song always deserves a thumbs up

[Cleanincubus]

Severlin has stated a few times that he'd like to try and convince the "higher ups" (not specifically in that sort of language), to upgrade the server hardware. This is certainly a money issue. DDO may have made a bunch of money with the 2 Expansions, but all of it certainly didn't go towards DDO. Royalties to WotC, money to LotRO, and a ton of money to the failure that is Infinite Crisis (I consider it a failure if I get a free copy from getting a new graphics card [and no, I didn't download it].)

So, it's certainly not a situation of "oh, their making a ton of money and don't care about doing what needs to be done to fix hardware issued." It's a situation of incredibly outdated hardware, and not being given support from the company to upgrade what is failing. This is not a situation where the Devs or Producers deserve any blame. No one who deserves the blame for replacing hardware, will ever care enough to read this thread, or even this forum.

[FranOhmsford]

Grr won't let me rep you again but that band/album/song always deserves a thumbs up

Done.

[Connman]

Grr won't let me rep you again but that band/album/song always deserves a thumbs up


Done.

Once wasn't enough, +1

[vryxnr]

While the reason for the difference has been covered very well, I feel like tossing in an analogy into the mix, just for good measure. It will also take those above estimates and bring them into more workable numbers... values we the common man are more familiar with.

Two guys are walking outside without shirts on, well, because. They both decide that they should go and buy a shirt. Guy one, nicknamed "the Blizzard", has $100 in his pants pocket. Guy number two, nicknamed "the Turbine", only has $1.82. Yup, one hundred dollars versus one dollar and eighty two cents (that's rounding up in Turbine's favor as well). The Blizzard can score himself a pretty nice shirt for $100. The Turbine, alas, is lucky to get something second hand without too many holes in it. Maybe.

Sad thing is, that IS the revenue difference between Turbine and Blizzard based on those estimates. Given that, I'm actually amazed that Turbine is able to do what it does.

[MadCookieQueen]

Once wasn't enough, +1

Twice wasn't enough either +1

[ZhenBuYaoShi]

I've paid out however much it costs in TP points to buy all of the packs, minus the expansions. I bought, all of the highest, legendary expansions. I have and continue to buy I don't know how many thousands of TPs. I even with all of the expansions, even with all of the material to quest in, just for the TP per month, and the ability to open on elite I'll VIP for a while.

I pump so my **** money into that company that I don't care what they made, I want customer service that matches what I'm paying out, and if not, then I want the ability to change servers with my friends and be done with this nonsense! I don't think I'm asking for anything extraordinary at all. But, I'm done complaining.

[Dragavon]

I've paid out however much it costs in TP points to buy all of the packs, minus the expansions. I bought, all of the highest, legendary expansions. I have and continue to buy I don't know how many thousands of TPs. I even with all of the expansions, even with all of the material to quest in, just for the TP per month, and the ability to open on elite I'll VIP for a while.

I pump so my **** money into that company that I don't care what they made, I want customer service that matches what I'm paying out, and if not, then I want the ability to change servers with my friends and be done with this nonsense! I don't think I'm asking for anything extraordinary at all. But, I'm done complaining.

I think you need this link: http://nexua.org/niji/butthurt-form/